Braille Translator (English ⇄ UEB Braille)
Paste a short piece of English, or braille you already have in Unicode or ASCII, choose Grade 1 or Grade 2, and get the other side back — with the dot patterns, Unicode and ASCII views side by side. Copy the result or download it as a TXT. Made for learners and the people helping them check a passage line by line. Up to 5,000 characters per run.
Convert
Current standard: UEB in the US since 2016; the UK and Australia have also unified on UEB.
Ready. The engine loads locally in your browser on first Convert.
Convert to compare Unicode braille, dot patterns and NABCC ASCII, then copy a view or download TXT.
Unicode braille
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Dot patterns / numbers 1–6
Unicode cells show the pattern; numbers name raised dots. 0 = blank cell.
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ASCII braille
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English result
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Engine: liblouis 3.39.0 · en-ueb-g1.ctb · text_nabcc.dis.LGPL 2.1 or later ·Source, build recipe & credits. Unmodified tables. Grade 2 depends on context. Round-trip match ≠ correctness. Learning and self-check only.
Export result
How to use
- Choose direction and UEB Grade 1 or UEB Grade 2. For braille → English, also choose Unicode or ASCII.
- Paste into the active input. Your other direction’s draft is kept, but only the active input is counted and converted.
- Convert, review the results, then choose a copy view, copy, or download TXT in the export area below the results.
Built for learners and helpers checking a short passage line by line. Nothing here replaces a certified braille proofreader.
How to read the three result views
After Convert, the same UEB cells appear in three forms. Pick the view that matches what you need next—none of them is “more correct” than the others.
- Dot patterns / numbers 1–6 — best for checking one cell at a time. Numbers name which dots are raised;
0is a blank cell. Use this when you are learning the six-dot layout or comparing against a paper cell chart. - Unicode braille — the recommended form for modern software. Copy these characters into documents, messaging apps, or other tools that understand the Braille Patterns block (for example ⠁).
- ASCII braille (NABCC) — a six-dot mapping into printable ASCII for older embossers and workflows that still expect that encoding. This site uses lowercase letters for six-dot cells; it is not uppercase BRF.
UEB Grade 1 and Grade 2
- UEB Grade 1 — uncontracted: letters and basic symbols without contractions.
- UEB Grade 2 — contracted UEB: includes contractions; context matters, so a round-trip match alone does not prove the contraction choice was correct.
The same short sentence below was converted with this page’s liblouis 3.39.0 tables—not hand-copied. Grade 2 shortens words that Grade 1 spells cell by cell.
English: You can go now.
Grade 1 Unicode: ⠠⠽⠕⠥⠀⠉⠁⠝⠀⠛⠕⠀⠝⠕⠺⠲
Grade 1 ASCII: ,you can go now4
Grade 2 Unicode: ⠠⠽⠀⠉⠀⠛⠀⠝⠪⠲
Grade 2 ASCII: ,y c g n{4
In Grade 2, you, can, and go become single-letter contractions, and ow in now uses a groupsign—those shortenings do not appear in the Grade 1 line.
Engine & limits
Bidirectional boundary. Forward (English → braille) uses this site’s UEB tables. Reverse (braille → English) expands contractions where it can, but that step can be ambiguous: the tables include non-reversible rules, so fluent English back is still a check against the cells—not proof that the original braille was uniquely decoded.
Round-trip match ≠ correctness. UEB contractions are context-sensitive; matching after reverse conversion is not an authority certificate.
Contractions depend on where letters sit in a word. These two outputs are from the same engine on this site:
- awhile (Grade 2) → ⠁⠱⠊⠇⠑ (
a:ile) — the wh groupsign is used. - rawhide (Grade 2) → ⠗⠁⠺⠓⠊⠙⠑ (
rawhide) — w and h stay separate; the same letter pair does not take that groupsign here.
So a pairs that “look alike” in print can produce different braille. Always inspect the cells; do not assume a pattern that worked in one word applies in another.
- Up to 5,000 Unicode code points per run. Combining marks count separately; longer input is refused without truncation.
- Literary English ⇄ UEB only in this first version.
- No OCR, image, or photo input.
- Not for publishing, exams, legal materials, pharmaceuticals, wayfinding/signage, or embossing layouts.
- Only six-dot braille is supported. Non-ASCII print may produce engine escapes or normalization; inspect warnings. Line breaks are preserved as LF. TXT uses UTF-8, with no BRF page layout.
Rules reference:ICEB Unified English Braille· engine source:liblouis(this build: 3.39.0).
Braille cell basics
A standard literary cell is six dots in two columns of three, numbered 1–2–3 down the left and 4–5–6 down the right. Raised dots encode letters, punctuation, and—in Grade 2—contractions. A blank cell is a space between words.
When you are learning the alphabet, use Grade 1 and the dot patterns view so each print letter maps to a fixed cell. Grade 2 reuses some of those cells as contractions, which is why the same English letters can look shorter after Convert. This page is a translator for short passages; it is not a full braille-alphabet course.
UEB Grade 1 alphabet quick reference
These twenty-six cells are Grade 1 mappings from this site’s liblouis 3.39.0 tables—the same engine the converter uses. Dot numbers name raised dots 1–6. Use this chart to check a single letter; paste a whole passage above when you need Grade 2 contractions or reverse translation. For the printable interactive chart (Unicode, ASCII, Grade 2 wordsigns, numbers 1–0), open theUEB braille alphabet chart. One chart page is enough: we do not publish twenty-six separate “letter in braille” URLs.
| Letter | Unicode cell | Dots |
|---|---|---|
| A | ⠁ | 1 |
| B | ⠃ | 12 |
| C | ⠉ | 14 |
| D | ⠙ | 145 |
| E | ⠑ | 15 |
| F | ⠋ | 124 |
| G | ⠛ | 1245 |
| H | ⠓ | 125 |
| I | ⠊ | 24 |
| J | ⠚ | 245 |
| K | ⠅ | 13 |
| L | ⠇ | 123 |
| M | ⠍ | 134 |
| N | ⠝ | 1345 |
| O | ⠕ | 135 |
| P | ⠏ | 1234 |
| Q | ⠟ | 12345 |
| R | ⠗ | 1235 |
| S | ⠎ | 234 |
| T | ⠞ | 2345 |
| U | ⠥ | 136 |
| V | ⠧ | 1236 |
| W | ⠺ | 2456 |
| X | ⠭ | 1346 |
| Y | ⠽ | 13456 |
| Z | ⠵ | 1356 |
Who this translator is for
Built for people who need a fast, private check—not a publishing workflow. Typical uses:
- Learners practising Grade 1 cells or checking whether a Grade 2 contraction fired where they expected.
- Teachers and tutors preparing a short drill and wanting Unicode, ASCII, and dot numbers side by side.
- Family members and aides helping someone compare a typed line with braille without sending the text to a remote server.
- Developers and content helpers who need a quick UEB sample in Unicode or NABCC ASCII for a prototype.
If you only have braille and need print English back, start onbraille to English. The homepage converter still does both directions; that page is tuned for the reverse intent and links here for the shared engine notes.
What this is not for
- Publication, examination, or certification workflows
- Legal, medical/pharma, or safety-critical wording
- Physical braille embossing / press layout
- Any use that requires certified 100% accuracy
FAQ
Do I need Grade 1 or Grade 2?
Use UEB Grade 1 for uncontracted letter-by-letter practice. Use UEB Grade 2 when you are checking contracted UEB. This site only offers those two UEB options (no separate EBAE / older British locale list). Pick explicitly — the site will not silently guess.
What is the difference between Unicode and ASCII braille?
Unicode braille uses the Braille Patterns block (e.g. ⠁). ASCII braille encodes cells with printable ASCII characters using the six-dot subset of NABCC (text_nabcc.dis). Use lowercase ASCII letters: uppercase NABCC uses dot 7 and is rejected. Digits and punctuation encode cells, not their print meanings. This is not uppercase BRF encoding. In source data, a cell such as ⠀ may be written as the escape \u2820; paste the actual Unicode braille character here, not the six-character escape.
What if my text is over 5,000 characters?
Split or shorten it to 5,000 Unicode code points or fewer, then Convert again. Combining marks count separately. Your input is kept and never silently truncated; previous results clear until a new successful conversion.
Does my passage leave this browser?
Conversion runs in your browser. The engine and tables load on first use; your passage is not sent to a translation server. If loading fails, keep your input and retry Convert.
Why can't I upload an image or PDF?
This version converts typed or pasted literary English and UEB braille only. It has no OCR, image, photo, or PDF input, so it cannot recognize text or braille from a scan.
Is a perfect round-trip proof that my braille is correct?
No. Especially in Grade 2, contractions depend on context. Treat results as a learning aid, not certification.
Where do I convert braille back to English?
Use the same converter on this page (choose Braille → English), or open the dedicatedbraille to English page for reverse-direction help and examples. For letter lookup and a printable sheet, use the UEB braille alphabet chart. A full Grade 2 lesson track is still out of scope for this first version.